Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Wellness Wednesday

Soft Drinks, Juices, Gatorade (and the like), Starbucks favorites, and Alcohol all contain a lot of calories. Depending on the amount you consume, it's not hard to drink the equivalent of an entire meal by mindlessly sipping away.

I'm pretty much avoiding soft drinks and Gatorade altogether (due to my rule of "if you can't pronounce the ingredients you probably should eat it") But natural juices, the occasional treat from Starbucks, and a glass of wine every once in a while isn't going to kill ya. You just have to be aware of the calories that it adds to your diet and make up for it somewhere else.

The one little trick that helps me drink more water, as simple as it may sound, is having a water bottle that I like. I'm not nearly as likely to pour myself a glass of water and sip on it throughout the day as I am to guzzle through several bottles of water. I don't know why that is, but I know it's true for me. I don't like the water bottles that you have to unscrew the lid. I just like the lids that pops on and off. Here's my current water bottle:

Pretty fancy, huh? It has nothing to do with the brand and everything to do with the cap. This bottle has lasted me for about a month so far. I just refill it and keep on drinking. Whenever I lose it or it gets destroyed, I just buy another one. I typically drink at least 3 of these per day.

If you are used to drinking a lot of calories, you could probably drop a couple pounds really easily by switching to drinking water instead. Once you get hooked on water, you'll start to crave it just like you used to crave soft drinks! At least that's true for me...